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Dishing Up oregon

145 Recipes celebRating faRm-to-table flavoRs

ashley gartland
Photography by John Valls

celebrate oregon’s offerings
Dishing Up Oregon features 145 native recipes — including contributions from local chefs, innkeepers, farmers, and other food producers — that celebrate the rich diversity of the state’s cuisine, along with the people who grow and create the food. The recipes highlight much-loved local ingredients like marionberries, hazelnuts, albacore tuna, pears, and grass-fed lamb; the accompaning artisan profiles offer a snapshot of the producers who make the state’s rich food scene possible, day after day.

The Author
Ashley Gartland is a freelance food writer whose articles appear regularly in the Oregonian, Sunset, MIX, Southern Oregon Magazine, Edible Portland, and Northwest Palate. She has served as the executive director of the Portland Culinary Alliance for the past three years. She and her husband live in Hillsboro, Oregon.

4 servings 1. Position a rack in the center of the oven. Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a baking sheet with foil. 2. Pulse the hazelnuts in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade attachment until finely ground. Spread the ground hazelnuts on a large plate. 3. Lightly season the salmon fillet with salt and pepper. Roll the top of the fillet in the ground hazelnuts to form a crust. Transfer the fillet to the prepared baking sheet and patch up any holes in the crust. Bake the salmon until the fish is pale pink and just cooked through and the hazelnut crust is golden brown, about 10 minutes. 4. While the salmon cooks, melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Continue cooking the butter, swirling the pan occasionally, until it becomes golden brown and has a nutty aroma, about 5 minutes. Remove the saucepan from the heat. 5. Remove the salmon from the oven and transfer it to a serving plate. Drizzle the brown butter and balsamic vinegar over the top of the fillet and serve immediately.
note: Cooper Mountain Vineyards makes a local aged balsamic vinegar, called Apicio Balsamic Vinegar, that I like to use for this dish. Find the vinegar on their website or at purveyors like Cork, Foster & Dobbs, and Pastaworks.

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Juniper Grove Farm
You CAn heAR The heART of Juniper Grove Farm bleating the moment you approach Pierre Kolisch’s hand-built creamery. Just beyond the creamery’s bright blue front door, his herd of goats stand greeting visitors and munching on alfalfa between milkings. Kolisch and his small staff rise early to milk the goats at 7 am; they milk them again at 4 pm to keep up with the demand for Juniper Grove’s high-quality artisan cheese. Kolisch chased his dream of becoming an artisan cheese maker in France, appropriately.

After apprenticing with a farmstead cheese maker abroad, he returned home to oregon in 1987 and bought a farm in the Central oregon desert. What began as a one-man, hobby-scale cheesemaking operation has since grown into a nationally recognized business with a herd of about 85 goats and a selection of 10 different cheeses. For a small artisan cheese maker, Kolisch makes an impressive range of cheeses, from the mold-ripened Pyramid to the nutty, pecorino-like Redmondo to a full-flavored feta. Such variety is unusual for a small-scale producer and all the

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more impressive because Kolisch has expanded his lineup without decreasing the quality of a single cheese. “That is a very difficult task because getting good at one cheese — well, if you can get good at one cheese, that’s adequate for a cheese maker to aspire to,” he says. Local market shoppers and chefs praise many of the farm’s cheeses but often gravitate toward the fruity aged Tumalo Tomme and the surface-ripened Bûche that have become Juniper Grove signatures. Kolisch enjoys eating the Bûche during the summer with a glass of chilled white wine, and he

recommends consumers serve his cheeses similarly, free from fancy adornments. “Think of these cheeses as something that can stand on their own. There is a little too much fussiness among American consumers that cheese has to go with something,” he says. “Just eat it by itself. You don’t have to pair it with a fig or some quince paste or some honey that came from some exotic place. Just have some good bread and good cheese and wine and appreciate the flavors that are in the cheese.”

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Recipe from Chef Matthew Busetto of Firehouse Restaurant

English Pea Pesto
english peas inspired this brilliant green pesto that Chef Matthew Busetto serves with gnocchi at his Portland restaurant. At home, I like to spread it on rounds of toasted bread to serve as a light appetizer. The delicate spread is perfect on its own, but you can also pair it with fresh ricotta or shavings of Pecorino Romano cheese.
1 pound English peas, shucked (about 1 cup) 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil 1/4 cup finely grated Pecorino Romano cheese 2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh tarragon leaves sea salt

Makes about ¾ cup 1. Prepare an ice water bath. Bring a medium pot of salted water to a boil and cook the peas for 1 minute. Drain the peas and immediately transfer them to the ice water bath to cool. once cool, drain the peas. 2. Blend the peas and olive oil in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade attachment until well combined but still slightly coarse. 3. Transfer the pesto to a small bowl. Mix in the cheese and tarragon. Salt to taste and serve immediately.

8 (5-ounce) servings 1. Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 325°F. Lightly butter eight 6-ounce ramekins. 2. heat the cream, milk, honey, and lavender in a heavy saucepan over medium heat until the mixture comes to a simmer. Remove the saucepan from the heat. 3. Whisk the egg yolks, eggs, and granulated sugar together in a medium bowl until well combined. Slowly whisk the hot cream mixture into the egg mixture. Pour the custard through a fine-mesh strainer into another medium bowl. Discard the lavender. 4. Bring a medium saucepan of water to a boil. Place the ramekins in a large roasting pan and fill the pan with enough hot water to come halfway up the sides of the ramekins. Divide the custard among the ramekins and bake until the custards are set but still tremble slightly in the center, about 35 minutes. Remove the ramekins from the pan and refrigerate uncovered until cool. once cool, cover the custards with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 8 hours or overnight. 5. Divide the brown sugar among the ramekins, sprinkling it lightly over the top of the custards. using a kitchen torch, heat the brown sugar until melted and deep amber, about 2 minutes. Refrigerate the custards until the sugar hardens, about 15 minutes, before serving.